• More than 400 jobs cut from Queensland’s state-owned power distributers after Palaszczuk Government dumped $4.1 billion of debt on their balance sheets• Labor’s electricity merger fails to generate the savings promised, now hardworking Queenslanders are losing their jobs• Annastacia Palaszczuk is good at talking about jobs but her policies are destroying them

Hundreds of workers in Queensland’s power industry have lost their jobs after the Palaszczuk Labor Government dumped $4.1 billion worth of debt off its accounts and onto state-owned power distributors.

Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson said Labor’s move to fiddle the State’s books had come at a huge cost to hundreds and potentially thousands of Queensland families.

“This inexperienced Labor government has ripped the guts out of the State’s energy companies and now Queenslanders are paying for it through lost jobs,” Mr Emerson said.

“You can’t ramp up their debts, strip all their cash and raid all of the dividends and expect these energy businesses to grow.

“The majority of these jobs were frontline – with 296 full time positions slashed at Ergon Energy and 116 lost at Energex during 2015-16.